Ten things you may not have known about William Hague

1 ACCORDING to the New Statesman, William Hague is admired by former US President Jimmy Carter. In a recent interview he said Mr Hague was an “an active hero of mine; he and Miss Jolie are doing a successful and admirable job”.

2 WILLIAM Hague’s middle name is Jefferson.

3 HE once boasted he drank 14 pints of beer as a young man.

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4 HE served as Secretary of State for Wales in John Major's government in 1995. Civil servant Ffion Jenkins was hired to teach him Welsh. The pair married in December 1997.

5 HIS final song choice on Desert Island Discs was That’s Life by Frank Sinatra.

6 HAGUE’S father, Nigel, and mother, Stella (pictured below) ran a soft drinks manufacturing business for which he used to work during school holidays.

7 HE once said: “I have found that I get a better reaction from people once I am less bothered about their reaction.”

8 THE Guardian’s Andrew Rawnsley once described him as: “a young Harold Wilson who talks and thinks like Margaret Thatcher.”

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9 AGED 13 while his classmates recited the names of the players in the Liverpool versus Newcastle FA Cup Final, young William was more interested in the Harold Wilson versus Edward Heath clash in the 1974 General Election, and he was able to recite the name, constituency, majority and percentage swing of every MP.

10 IN 1989, at 27, William Hague was selected for the Richmond seat – then the 18th safest in the country – ahead of 352 other candidates.

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